Independent Audit Finds Progress Lacking in Iraq

WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 — As Democrats in Congress opened a marathon series of hearings on the Iraq war today, members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee seized on a new report by the Government Accountability Office showing virtually no political progress by the Iraqi government as the latest evidence that President Bush’s military strategy is failing.

The hearings, in both the Senate and the House, will be held every day for the next week as Democrats seek to shape the debate over the war ahead of the much-awaited reports by General David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker.

“No matter what spin we may hear in the coming days, this independent assessment is a failing grade for a policy that simply isn’t working,” Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said in opening remarks that seemed to sum up his party’s message.

“We are here to measure whether that which the Iraqi government itself promised to achieve has been achieved, “ Mr. Kerry said, as his committee prepared to question David M. Walker, the comptroller general of the Government Accountability Office.

It was clear that the Democrats were laying the groundwork to undermine any positive assessments of the war by the Bush administration, and some Republicans on the Foreign Relations Committee sought to cast doubt on the report’s findings.

Senator Norm Coleman, Republican of Minnesota, suggested that the report did not include data from August and that more recent numbers present a more positive picture.

“The data in August, I think, would be very clear about the reduction in violence,” Mr. Coleman told Mr. Walker.

But Mr. Kerry and his fellow Democrats harped on what is certain to be a common refrain in the days ahead, that the escalation of troops since February has not led to marked political improvements by the Iraqi government.

“There has been no meaningful progress on meeting political benchmarks,” Mr. Kerry said to Mr. Walker, with no intonation of a question mark although he was in a question-and-answer session with Mr. Walker.

The G.A.O. report concluded that “violence remains high” in Iraq amid mixed progress on security and that political reconciliation efforts remain far from sufficient, eight months after President Bush began his troop-increase plan.

Photo

David M. Walker, the comptroller general, delivers remarks before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday.Credit
Doug Mills/The New York Times

The report places greater emphasis on shortcomings than successes, saying that Iraq has failed to meet 11 of the 18 military and political objectives, or benchmarks, set by Congress and agreed on by Mr. Bush, while partially meeting four.

“Overall, key legislation has not been passed, violence remains high, and it is unclear whether the Iraqi government will spend $10 billion in reconstruction funds,” said the report from Mr. Walker. “These results do not diminish the courageous efforts of coalition forces and progress that has been made in several areas, including Anbar Province.”

The report found that only two of nine security benchmarks had been met: the Iraqi government had established committees in support of the Baghdad security plan and set up most of the planned joint security stations in Baghdad.

But it had not eliminated militia control of local security, put an end to political intervention in military operations, ensured even-handed law enforcement, increased army units capable of independent operations or ensured that political authorities made no false accusations against security forces.

The report said that the Iraqi government had met only one of eight legislative benchmarks as it protected the rights of minority political parties in the legislature. It had not enacted legislation on de-Baathification, oil-revenue sharing, provincial elections, amnesty or militia disarmament.

It said that it was unclear whether sectarian violence had decreased, a key benchmark, “since it is difficult to measure whether the perpetrators’ intents were sectarian in nature, and other measures of population security show differing trends.”

A graphic in the report shows attacks on coalition and Iraqi forces, and civilians, as rising in the spring months, while American forces were still being increased and declining since June, when the so-called surge was completed.

In a draft version of the G.A.O. report obtained last week by reporters, the agency found that the Iraqi government had failed to meet 13 of 18 military and political objectives agreed to by President Bush not 11, as the final version states.

Pentagon officials had contended that at least two more categories should have been given passing grades. They said that Iraq had in fact delivered the army units to Baghdad it had promised as part of stepped-up security there, and they challenged a finding that questioned whether sectarian killings had declined in recent months.

Other reports, including a National Intelligence Estimate and a bleak assessment of the Iraqi national police by a congressionally established commission, have also offset some of Mr. Bush’s more optimistic portrayals of progress in Iraq, while leaving each side in the debate on Iraq with evidence to support their cases.

The hearings on Iraq began as Congress re-opened for business after a tumultuous monthlong recess.

And the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, in his opening speech from the Senate floor, vowed to change the course of the war. “September is the month for policy change in Iraq,” Mr. Reid declared, noting that many Republican lawmakers had urged patience until the reports due this month from General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker.

“The calendar has not changed,” Mr. Reid said. “It’s September. We have reached this goal. It’s time to make a decision. We can’t continue the way we are. We can’t afford it, militarily and financially.”

David S. Cloud contributed reporting from Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, and Steven Lee Myers and David M. Herszenhorn from Washington.